The Irish Cancer Society has said it needs to raise €30 million this year to meet a record demand for its services, which increased significantly last year.
Over the last five years, the ICS said there has been a 126% increase in the requirement for the charity's cancer patient transport services alone.
Last year, bookings for the transport offered by the ICS to bring patients to and from treatments increased by 20% on 2023, with over 2,500 people across the country availing of the service.
Almost three million kilometres were covered by its drivers.
The charity’s free nationwide counselling service saw an increase of 8% to over 16,000 sessions.
There was also an 8% rise in contacts to its Freephone Support Line, which provides confidential advice, support and information to anyone affected by cancer, with 10,700 calls received last year.
Meanwhile, over 6,000 nights of palliative nursing care or end-of-life care were given to over 1,700 patients.
The figures were released ahead of the Daffodil Day annual fundraising event, which takes place on Friday.
CEO of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power said the demand for services is due to the increase in the number of people getting cancer, and the rise in the cost-of-living affecting people being treated for the disease.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said: "The number of people getting cancer is going up by about 4% a year. On top of that, while financial pressures are always an issue, the mounting costs for medication, for transport, for a range of different services, the pressures have been a lot worse in the last few years."
Ms Power also commented that some medications are only available to people who have private health insurance.
"That's a massive issue and a huge inequality", she said, adding that it is something the society has worked to highlight.
"Ireland has one of the slowest access to new medicines in Europe. It takes about two years here from the drug being approved by the European Medicines Agency to public patients getting access to it, those with private health insurance can often get those drugs refunded straight away from their insurers.
"So that means that literally whether you have insurance or not can be the difference between getting a vital medicine or not. And in fact, the medicine that could save your life."
The ICS said 44,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year in Ireland.
